In conventional dye transfer imaging, heat is applied imagewise to a donor sheet, that is, a dye containing layer coated onto a support. The dye sublimes and/or diffuses from the donor sheet to a receptor sheet to produce an image on the receptor sheet. Disadvantageously, art known donor elements are generally suitable only for single event dye transfer. Traditionally, the heat is applied to the donor sheet (1) by thermal conduction from heated styli, or (2) by absorption of light and internal conversion to heat by carbon or graphite particles or near-IR absorbing molecules present in the vicinity of the dye. When light to heat conversion elements are dispersed in the binder, the dispersion properties of the system must be accounted for.
Some art known transfer media use near infrared (IR) absorbing dyes or graphite/carbon/metal particles dispersed in the dye/binder layer or wholly separated from the dye layer as the light to heat absorbing elements. In those cases where the light absorbing elements are uniformly distributed in the dye/binder layer, radiation is absorbed throughout the dye layer. Since the entire layer is heated, some binder may also be transferred with the dye, especially if the dye-containing layer is thin. When carbon black is used as the absorbing element, carbon contamination can lead to desaturated colors.